[CHAPTER XI.]
ON THE SECONDARY, ORANGE.
Orange is the first of the secondary colours in relation to light, being in all the variety of its hues composed of yellow and red. A true or perfect orange is such a compound of red and yellow as will neutralize a perfect blue in equal quantity either of surface or intensity; and the proportions of such compound are five of perfect red to three of perfect yellow. When orange inclines to red, it takes the names of scarlet, poppy, &c.: in gold colour, &c., it leans towards yellow. Combined with green it forms the tertiary citrine, and with purple the tertiary russet: it also furnishes a series of warm semi-neutral colours with black, and harmonizes in contact and variety of tints with white.
Orange is an advancing colour in painting:—in nature it is effective at a great distance, acting powerfully on the eye, diminishing its sensibility in accordance with the strength of the light in which it is viewed. It is of the hue, and partakes of the vividness of sunshine, as it likewise does of all the powers of its components, red and yellow. Pre-eminently a warm colour, being the equal contrast of or antagonist to blue, to which the attribute of coolness peculiarly belongs, it is discordant when standing alone with yellow or with red, unresolved by their proper contrasts or harmonizing colours, purple and green. As an archeus or ruling colour, orange is one of the most agreeable keys in toning a picture, from the richness and warmth of its effects. If it predominate therein, for the colouring to be true, the violet and purple should be more or less red, the red more or less scarlet, the yellow more or less intense and orange, and the orange itself be intense and vivid. Further, the greens must lose some of their blue and consequently become yellower, the light blues be more or less light grey, and the deep indigo more or less marrone.
Although the secondary colours are capable of being obtained by admixture of the primaries in an infinitude of hues, tints, and shades; yet simple original pigments of whatever class—whether secondary, tertiary, or semi-neutral—are, it has been said before, often superior to those compounded, both in a chemical and artistic sense. Hence a thoroughly good original orange is only of less value and importance than a thoroughly good original yellow, a green than a blue, or a purple than a red. To produce pure and permanent compound hues requires practice and knowledge, and we too often see in the works of painters combinations neither pleasing nor stable. Colours are associated with each other which do not mix kindly, and compounds formed of which one or both constituents are fugitive. As a consequence, mixed tints are frequently wanting in clearness, and, where they do not disappear altogether, resolve themselves into some primary colour; orange becoming red by a fading of the yellow, green yellow by a fading of the blue, and purple blue by a fading of the red. Again, with regard to compound tints, there is the danger of one colour reacting upon and injuring another, as in the case of greens obtained from chrome yellow and Prussian blue, where the former ultimately destroys the latter. Of course a mixture of two permanent pigments which do not react on each other will remain permanent; the green, for instance, furnished by aureolin and native ultramarine lasting as long as the ground itself. To produce, however, the effects desired, the artist does not always stop to consider the fitness and stability of his colours in compounding, even if he possess the needed acquaintance with their physical and chemical properties. At all times, therefore, but especially when such knowledge is slight, good orange, &c., pigments are of more or less value, as by their use the employment of inferior mixtures is to a great extent avoided. In mingling primary with primary, if one colour does not compound well with the other, or is fugacious, the result is failure; but a secondary is not so easily affected by admixture: a green, for example, is seldom quite ruined by the injudicious addition of blue or yellow; and even if either of the latter be fugitive, the green will remain a green if originally durable. Thus the secondaries, if they are not already of the colour required, may be brightened or subdued, deepened or paled, with comparative impunity. The artist who, from long years of experience, knows exactly the properties and capabilities of the colours he employs, may in a measure dispense with secondary pigments, and obtain from the primaries mixed tints at once stable, beautiful, and pure; but even he must sometimes resort to them, as when a green like emerald or viridian is required, which no mixture of blue and yellow will afford. The primaries, by reason of their not being able to be composed of other colours, occupy the first place on the palette, and are of the first importance; but the secondaries are far too useful to be disregarded, and have a value of their own, which both veteran and tyro have cause to acknowledge.
The list of original orange pigments was once so deficient, that in some old treatises on the subject of colours, they are not even mentioned. This may have arisen, not merely from their paucity, but from the unsettled signification of the term orange, as well as from improperly calling these pigments reds, yellows, &c. In these days, however, orange pigments are sufficiently numerous to merit a chapter to themselves; they indeed comprise some of the best colours on the palette.
155. BURNT SIENNA,
or Burnt Terra di Sienna, is calcined raw Sienna, of a rich transparent brown-orange or orange-russet colour, richer, deeper, and more transparent than the raw earth. It also works and dries better, has in other respects the qualities of its parent colour, and is a most permanent and serviceable pigment in painting generally. For the warm tints in rocks, mud banks, and buildings, this colour is excellent. When mixed with blue it makes a good green; furnishing a bright green with cobalt, and one much more intense with Prussian blue. For the foresea, whether calm or broken by waves, it may be employed with a little madder; while compounded with a small portion of the latter and lamp black, it meets the hues of old posts, boats, and a variety of near objects, as the tints may be varied by modifying the proportions of the component colours. Used with white, it yields a range of sunny tones; and with aureolin or French blue and aureolin will be found of service, the last compound giving a fine olive green. Similar but fugitive greens are afforded by admixture of burnt Sienna with indigo and yellow or Roman ochre, or raw Sienna; tints which may be saddened into olive neutrals by the addition of sepia, and rendered more durable by substituting for indigo Prussian blue and black. Mixed with viridian, it furnishes autumnal hues of the utmost richness, beauty, and permanence; and, alone, is valuable as a glaze over foliage and herbage. For the dark markings and divisions of stones a compound of Payne's gray and burnt Sienna will prove serviceable; while for red sails the Sienna, either by itself, with brown madder, or with Indian red, cannot be surpassed. For foregrounds, banks and roads, cattle and animals in general, burnt Sienna is equally eligible, both alone and compounded. It has a slight tendency to darken by time.
156. CADMIUM ORANGE
was first introduced to the art-world at the International Exhibition of 18621862, where it was universally admired for its extreme brilliancy and beauty, a brilliancy equalled by few of the colours with which it was associated, and a beauty devoid of coarseness. We remember well the power it possessed of attracting the eye from a distance; and how, on near approach, it threw nearly all other pigments into the shade. It has in truth a lustrous luminosity not often to be met with, added to a total absence of rankness or harshness. A simple original colour, containing no base but cadmium, it is of perfect permanence, being uninjured by exposure to light, air or damp, by sulphuretted hydrogen, or by admixture. Having in common with cadmium sulphides a certain amount of transparency, it is invaluable for gorgeous sunsets and the like, either alone or compounded with aureolin. Of great depth and power in its full touches, the pale washes are marked by that clearness and delicacy which are so essential in painting skies. As day declines, and blue melts into green, green into orange, and orange into purple, the proper use of this pigment will produce effects both glowing and transparent. Transparency signifies the quality of being seen through or into; and in no better way can it be arrived at than by giving a number of thin washes of determined character, each lighter than the preceding one. With due care in preserving their forms, from the commencement to the termination, such washes of orange will furnish hues the softest and most aerial. For bits of bright drapery, a glaze over autumn leaves, and mural decoration, this colour is adapted; while in illumination it supplies a want formerly much felt. "With the exception of scarlet or bright orange," said Mr. Bradley, nine or ten years since, in his Manual of Illumination, "our colours are everything we could wish." As an original pigment, a permanent scarlet does not yet exist; but the brilliancy of cadmium orange cannot be disputed, nor its claim to be the only unexceptionable bright orange known. It even assists the formation of the other colour: remarks the author mentioned, "Brilliancy is obtained by gradation. Suppose a scarlet over-curling leaf, for example. The whole should be painted in pure orange, with the gentlest possible after-touch of vermilion towards the corner under the curl. When dry, a firm line—not wash—of carmine, (of madder, preferable.—Ed.), passed within the outline on the shade side only of the leaf, will give to the whole the look of a bright scarlet surface, but with an indescribable superadded charm, that no merely flat colour can possess." In the same branch of art, illumination, cadmium orange, opposed to viridian, presents a most dazzling contrast, especially if relieved by purple.